an Interview with Khaled
Hosseini
Author of "The Kite Runner"
in villagerambler
magazine

Sep 2004

Inside
Afghanistan: The Kites of Kabula 30 minute special report Wednesday, September 29th at 7pm on CBS
5
(CBS5 SanFrancisco)"If the dirt of the day and the din of
the traffic become too much, just look up -- soaring above the city on
any given day, anywhere, you can see the kites of Kabul.
Kite flying is big business again in Kabul. Banned by the Taliban, it
was against the law for several years. The younger kite flyers are making
up for lost time. Farhad Whaedy is a veteran, spending nearly half his
10-year-old life on the kite-cutting circuit.
"When you compete with the other kites, you should cut the other
kite," said Whaedy. "Everybody good will cut the other kite."
Kite cutting is when your kite's string severs the string of your competitor,
launching the loser's aloft. And on this battleground, there is a fate
worse than losing. If your opponent should find your kite, well, the humiliation
is doubled. But until then, a champion is like a rock star."
Dana King "Inside
Afghanistan"

Feb 2003

photos
of first kiteshops reopened in kabul
(more: see link to photopages below )

"To the first-time visitor, the
skies above Kabul appear to be filled with fluttering birds or pieces
of paper caught in the wind. A closer look reveals hundreds of brightly
colored kites soaring high into the air...."
"Jawid says he still sold kites during the days of the Taliban, but
that everywhere it was done in secret..."

2002 Aug

"The Secret Kite" a story
about kites and taliban afghanistan.
released by TES - UNICEF - now on FPC page

"As soon as they made
fun legal again, Muhammad Zamon knew he was going to become a very busy
man. As one of Kabul's premier kite makers, Mr. Zamon says he never has
seen business soar higher than in the six weeks since the Taliban's fall
from power and, with it, an end to the kite-flying ban.
"We used to have huge stocks and no customers. Nothing was selling
because of the ban. Now, I can't make them fast enough," said Mr.
Zamon, 57. "As soon as I put one together, somebody comes and buys
it. ...
Kite-flying, for example, was banned because the Taliban's Ministry for
the Propagation of Virtue and the Supression of Vice suspected that boys
could use kites as an excuse to climb on rooftops and sneak a peak into
the back yards and houses of neighbors. There could be women walking around
without their head-to-toe burqas, the Taliban reasoned, and therefore,
kite-flying had to be banned."

"My father was a kite fighter, and my grandfather before him and
I have been a kite fighter since I was knee high," said Aga, now
43. "This is my passion and my profession. Kites allow me to eat
and survive."

Two years ago, Aga was caught by the Vice and Virtue police flying
a kite from the roof of his home. The police found his clandestine kite
shop and burned it to the ground, he said. They then threw Aga in jail
for two weeks, where he was drilled on the evils of kite fighting.

"I lost everything. Everything in the world," he said.

But nothing could take away his love for the sport.

"The Taliban left at 2 a.m. and at 9 a.m. I was flying my kites,"
Aga said.

Nov 2001

"An
Afghan boy flies a kite in the Shorora neigborhood of the Afghan capital
Kabul November 21, 2001"
(AP/Wide World Photo - Brennan Linsley)
from us.dpt.state.intl.inf

"We saw
a young boy flying a kite," ABCs Dan Harris marveled from Taliban-controlled
Kandahar."
"Jennings then asked Harris about life in Kandahar. Harris replied
that the religious police had been "shut down." Harris observed:
"We expected a completely joyless, rigid society. But today in fact
we saw a young boy flying a kite. In any other nation in the world that
would be an ordinary site, but previously kite-flying had been outlawed
by the Taliban. We saw women walking unescorted. Previously that had been
outlawed."

< "The first sight of the Buddhas is breathtaking. During the
Third and Fourth Century AD and before the introduction of Islam to
this region a large Buddhist colony inhabited the valley. At one time
more than 1,000 monks lived and prayed here in caved carved into the
cliffs. They created two large figures of Buddha, one standing, the
other seated...."
- pic and report by Emmalee Tarry, 1977 - see full
story -[courtesy by 22jan03 - nonprofit]

Nov 2001

<
November 2001, near Kunduz.

<
"No kite does fly, no bird will cry.."

photo by Alexander Merkushev - see more
- [courtesy by 22jan03 - nonprofit]

"Hope can also be seen in the kite that 7-year old Abdul Maruf
flies above the village. Maruf's family left their drought-ravaged farm
in the Afghan countryside a year ago, moving in with relatives outside
Mazar-e-Sharif. Yet three months later, when the war with the ruling
Taliban threatened to overtake their village, Maruf's parents made the
decision to flee to safety in neighboring Pakistan. Soon after arrival
Maruf put together a kite, one of many pleasures banned by the Taliban.
He said his biggest complaint about the camp is a lack of wind, and
he runs through the street kicking up dust as he struggles to get his
kite airborne."
"I like it here, but I liked it better at home," he said.
"If peace comes, I want to go back home. And I'll take my kite
with me."
- more : PWSD
/ ACT

Music, except for religious chants, is prohibited in shops, hotels
and vehicles, and at weddings and parties. Kite flying is considered
"useless" and an obstacle to education. Hobbies like keeping pigeons
also are forbidden. web

(dec 2001) ...lot of trouble, thinking, talking and confusion the
last 3 months. its a big war running here, there and there on the planet.
kiteflying now no more opressed in afghanistan, but difficult to tell
whether the general situation for the people there will turn to good
soon.

am. medical assn. usa web - women's health information
centre a report :
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world...
In 1994, the Taliban, a radical Islamic movement believed to have originated
from religious schools in Pakistan, emerged and spread throughout southern
Afghanistan...
Other reasons for detention of men included being in a mosque at prayer
time, flying a kite, playing music at their wedding, and laughing in
public. The majority, 70 (60%) of 116, of these detentions lasted longer
than an hour; 63 (54%) resulted in beatings and 24 (21%) resulted in
torture.

Before the war began, Gudiparan bazi
(kite flying) was a common hobby of many Afghans throughout Afghanistan.
It was a form of sport that many took to the status of art. From the designs
and sizes of kites to the making of unbreakable tar (wire), for many this
became a matter of honor to compete in who's who among the best kite fighters
in their neigborhood. This addicting sport absorbed many young Afghans,
even during the war. For those who missed out on this great Afghan past
time, here is the nuts and bolts of Afghan kite and kite fighting in a
nut shell. I have compiled this article to preserve this aspect of the
Afghan culture, as today this sport is banned by current authorities.

1996?
(islamic 1375)

Letter from the Cultural and Social Affairs Department of General
Presidency of Islamic State of Afghanistan
No. 6240 dated 26.09.1375 (1996?)

Notice of Department
for enforcement of right Islamic way and prevention of evils: ...
(g.) To prevent kite flying: First should be broadcasted by the public
information resources advising the people of its useless consequences
such as betting, death of children and their deprivation from education.
The kite shops in the city should be abolished. ...
Mawlavi Enayatullah Baligh, Deputy Minister, General Presidency of Amr
Bil Marof Wa Nai Az Munkir (religious police)

1977

< "This arch celebrates a
military victory of King Amanullah in the War of Independence in 1919.
Today it used as a park. On the holiday boys are flying kites a popular
sport in Afghanistan."

in the year 2000 when starting with
the 'worldkite documention project' we found that Afghanistan seemed to
be the only country where kiteflying is explicit forbidden and illegal.

silly, crazy, stupid, absurd? No
chance to understand - so not acceptable. of course, opressed kites are
not the worst in REALITY - see under what conditions the people themselves,
especial the women, have to live...